The last remaining member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Judge Charles Breyer, is urging the Biden Administration to nominate six additional members to join the seven-member panel, which has lacked a quorum since 2019. The U.S. Judicial Conference has recommended six nominees, but the Biden Administration has yet to nominate anyone to the Commission.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission has released a new report on Recidivism among Federal Offenders. The Report breaks down statistics showing the likelihood of re-offending among defendants based on their criminal history, age, the type of offense, and a variety of other factors.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission has released two reports this year suggesting that an increasing number of federal judges are rejecting the harsh recommended penalties in child pornography offenses. These reports include statistics showing that the Guidelines for such offenses are outdated and unable to distinguish between more and less severe cases and that, as a result, judges are rejecting the Guidelines. The reports also include statistics showing that non-violent sex offenders generally pose a much lower risk of recidivism than offenders convicted of non-sex offenses.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently released a new tool, the Judiciary Sentencing INformation platform (JSIN), that allows users to review the median and average sentences for defendants who were sentenced under the same Guidelines provision and who had the same offense level and criminal history category. The tool has been criticized by some attorneys, however, for excluding certain sentences from its median and averages–namely probation sentences and sentences where defendants received credit for cooperation. As a result, the average and median sentences produced by JSIN are higher than the actual average and median sentences imposed.
The Department of Justice under President Biden is continuing a Trump-era tactic of treating certain defendants arrested during the George Floyd protests of 2020 as domestic terrorists. In one case, prosecutors charged two first-time offenders, who threw a Molotov cocktail into an empty police car, with crimes carrying a 45-year mandatory minimum sentence. While they were ultimately allowed to plead to lesser-included offense, the DOJ, under President Biden, is still seeking to apply a sentencing enhancement that applies to terrorism offenses.
A federal judge in Arizona recently declared a mistrial in the jury trial of Backpage founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin, who were charged with prostitution and money laundering. While the judge had initially ruled that prosecutors and witnesses could mention that the site was used for sex trafficking, they were prohibited from sharing specific details of that abuse. The judge declared a mistrial after the prosecution and witnesses repeatedly mentioned that the site was used for child sex trafficking.
The Federal Government is reportedly “ramping up” its investigation into individuals who are making threats against election officials. The FBI and the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section are reaching out to officials who have been receiving credible violent threats from individuals regarding the 2020 election.
The Department of Justice has announced a civil rights investigation into the conditions facing inmates in Georgia’s prison system. Each of the three U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Georgia, for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts, are involved in the statewide investigation along with the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. They will also be working with the State of Georgia and its Department of Corrections to determine whether inmates’ rights have been violated due to the conditions of their confinement.
The Department of Justice has announced a new written policy prohibiting the use of “chokeholds” and “carotid restraints,” a method of knocking out a detainee by restricting blood flow to their brain, unless an officer is authorized to use deadly force. The DOJ also announced a new policy limiting the use of “no-knock” warrants and entries. The policies will be applied across the entire Department of Justice and its sub-agencies.
According to the New York Times, the Biden administration is considering allowing certain inmates on CARES Act home confinement to remain free if they have a prior conviction for a nonviolent drug offense and have less than four years on their sentence. As things stand, any other type of inmate on home confinement will have to report back to prison when the pandemic ends.
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